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The novel is in past tense and the character is recounting things that happened before the novel began. Should I be using the past participle? Everything I read says that using the word "had" is a ...
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T08:33:47Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35151 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
rb304288
·
2019-12-08T08:33:47Z (over 4 years ago)
The novel is in past tense and the character is recounting things that happened before the novel began. Should I be using the past participle? Everything I read says that using the word "had" is a big no-no, despite its necessary existence to denote time and structure. For example: "She closed the book. Her father had given it to her as a gift three months ago. When she had first read it, it had given her goosebumps." Is that fine? Or should it all be in active simple present despite happening before the events occurring in the novel? For example: "She closed the book. Her father gave it to her as a gift three months ago. When she first read it, it gave her goosebumps."
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2018-04-17T20:15:11Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 6